Deutsche Bank yet to determine restructuring impact on GCC, Middle East

After announcing a global restructuring strategy in early July, Deutsche Bank has said it is unsure of how its downsizing plans will impact its operations across the Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“Regarding job cuts, it is too early to comment on specific details and we are not breaking down any regional or country numbers,” a spokesperson told Argaam on Wednesday in an emailed statement.

Deutsche Bank has axed 18,000 jobs to resize its global workforce to 74,000. This is part of its plan to downsize its investment banking business and to reduce total costs by a quarter by 2022.

The German lender intends to reduce adjusted costs by an estimated EUR 6 billion within the next three years to EUR 17 billion.

The bank closed its equities sales and trading business and reduced the amount of capital used by the fixed-income sales and trading business, in particular rates.

“The cuts to these businesses have started globally and we remain committed to our operations,” the spokesperson said.

“Our corporate banking has been and continues to be strong and well established across the region. We will further strengthen our wealth management franchise by building on its strong German and European businesses,” the spokesperson added. “Particular areas of growth and investment will be the Americas and our emerging markets region, which includes the Middle East and Asia Pacific.”

Deutsche Bank started slashing thousands of jobs in London and New York only hours after announcing the restructuring plan. Media reports said that the cull started in the Asia Pacific region, soon after the cuts were confirmed on Sunday evening in Europe, with employees being let go in Sydney and Hong Kong.

The bank reported EUR 201 million net income for the first quarter of 2019, up 67 percent year-on-year (YoY). However, revenues for the quarter were down 9 percent YoY reaching EUR 6.4 billion.

Write to Paromita Dey at paromita.d@argaamplus.com